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I think some people still haven't gotten over the initial impression that Harue is a lousy coach (I can't believe how crappy of a coach like her can top other more famous schools' in terms of intel) after how badly we have seen Kuro handled her matches against Toki and Teru. If anything, this chapter and ones about Sumire's tell shown how good of a coach she is the reason Miyamori's coach wanting to scount her in the first place.

Except that isn't remotely what I said. Harue spotting harvest girl's yakumans and Seiko's pons would already meet her obligations as coach, IMO. It's when Ritz throws in Sumire's minute tell, and Awai's move (rarely used even in the club, and only once in an official tournament) that it pushes credulity.

Quote:

Originally Posted by orangejuicetang

Actually, out of curiosity, how many pros have we seen that are associated with a team? Or pro-level, or whatever.

Himematsu's Akasaka called in ~15 people for the quarterfinals (Saki chapter 100), and then got another ~20 people who can "tune their styles to the other opponents" to prepare for the semi-finals. One of these people include Kainou-pro, a former top ranked pro. Since Senriyama & Shiraitodai are both strong schools of long standing, they would be in a similar situation with a pool of alumna pros they can call on for help. So we could be talking upwards of 100+ pro-level people in total here. Harue's a fine coach, just not SO good that she'd be the only one to spot something that a hundred other pros missed. If Harue was like a pro version of an analyst like FunaQ, I would find it more believable but as far as I know that isn't Harue's type.

Quote:

Originally Posted by teja208

Tell you something funny, I don't think there will be as much complaint if it's Hisa or Yumi instead of Harue who manages to gather these info.

I would have. Spotting Sumire's tell is such a long shot, no matter how you look at it. If there was a team pouring over tapes, maybe it would've been spotted eventually.

Tell you something funny, I don't think there will be as much complaint if it's Hisa or Yumi instead of Harue who manages to gather these info.

I think there would.

Let's compare this to, say, the quarterfinal captain's match in the main manga. Toyone's abilities were purposely hidden from prying eyes, and as a result, when she revealed them, everyone's reaction was one of surprise - once for each ability, in fact. Kyouko didn't even believe the ability at first since it was never on the records, and thus fell into it multiple times. Similarly, when Kasumi revealed her own one suit ability, it took a while before any of the other three players figured out what was going on. All of this is appropriate for what hidden or hard-to-notice abilities should be like.

In Achiga, aside from all of this being an eleventh hour power, powers that are explicitly stated to be hard or impossible to notice (Mairu/Himeko), should be impossible for just one person to pick up on without knowing where to look (Sumire), and stuff that no one else should possibly know (Awai) somehow can't escape her eyes. Also, somehow, she's the only one who knows! And Kuro's skill remains stagnant, as if for some reason she's still depending on her doras despite visual proof that she can do nothing against skilled players - almost as if Harue just gave up on her and is just making tentative efforts.

All of this, of course, after a pretty lengthy drama where the Achiga team suspects that their coach has abandoned them. That means that either all of the Achiga girls (especially Yuu, since her flashback was explicitly in Achiga's campus) are forgetful enough to not even remember that their coach was prepping them against Shirotodai players, or...I can't even find another explanation for this >.>.

If Hisa/Yumi suddenly started knowing about things like this or acting blatantly sue-ish with no explanation, then yeah, I think we would call BS on that as well. However, Hisa and Yumi's analysis were typically very consistent, and never exceeded what a observant person might gather after viewing someone's past records. Hisa is a sneaky player and a sneaky trainer, not a god. Harue seems more like she just suddenly awakened her omniscience off-panel after 12 full chapters.

(It doesn't help that Achiga's mahjong games, so far, have all been people throwing more shining finger at each other. The main manga is very much about mahjong, and uses the actual game rules to deliver more insights about the character. Achiga, at this point, is as much about mahjong as Prince of Tennis is about a father and son's relationship.)

It is kind of comical how we all just accept Teru's ability to magically know everything about you down to your shoe size through her mirror and yet when Harue figures things out through persistence, observation, and perhaps photographic memory we nitpick it apart.

You explained exactly why I'm nit picking right in your post. I have to accept Teru's mirror unconditionally because it's been stated as part of the magical mahjong hax that exists in Saki universe by numerous pros, commentators and players. Because if I can't accept all the rinshan/haitei/supernova/mirror hax that exists as part of this universe, I would have quit reading Saki by now. If Ritz had explained Harue's "eagle-eye ability" as one of her skills, I'd have no choice but to accept that too. But as teja208 says, it would've been nice if Ritz dropped some hints about this ability earlier in the series if that's the case. Whereas the "persistence, observation, and perhaps photographic memory" are subject to common sense and logic, and I've seen no reasonable explanation how Harue spotted some minute detail that dozens of other skilled pros missed. :P

But it's also possible for her to do pursuit riichi and got double riichi as a result too. We never see both of them fight head-on so we can't say for certain who'll get the upper hand when that happened.

I got the impression that she can do pursuit riichi regardless of the situation at hand based on her match with Saki.

If Ritz had explained Harue's "eagle-eye ability" as one of her skills, I'd have no choice but to accept that too. But as teja208 says, it would've been nice if Ritz dropped some hints about this ability earlier in the series if that's the case.

Whilst I don't like Harue managing to spot every other detail either, a character having some ability no one heard about it is nothing new in Achiga. I mean, Ryuuka just developed some super-power because Toki slept on her lap! And now Shizu is supposed to have some power no one knew about.

__________________

"The name is Tin; Used is just an alias. I'm everything Shoe Box would like to be." - Used Can of the Aluminium Kingdom

Here's a novel idea. Why don't we just sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride? We only have these 2 chapters before we're reduced to the table scraps we get for Saki chapters. Lets read these for what we came here for, entertainment.

Criticising points your don't like about a particular work doesn't mean you don't enjoy it, though.

I agree to this... I think majority of us here pokes on every little detail just for the fun of it... A lot of people here are like Harue in some sense... got a truckload of free time...

As for me... I just sit back, read and enjoy the discussion... well maybe post from time to time... for me who doesn't know how to play majhong, every time our majhong experts talk about heavy majhong details I'm like... "I don't really get what they're talking about but it sounds COOL~"

__________________

No one knows what the future holds.
It has infinite potential as this encounter makes it clear.
This is the choice of Steins Gate.

As for me... I just sit back, read and enjoy the discussion... well maybe post from time to time... for me who doesn't know how to play majhong, every time our majhong experts talk about heavy majhong details I'm like... "I don't really get what they're talking about but it sounds COOL~"

This is always me
Except I rarely post unless I understand what people are saying (which is never)

Me either, it's not like I know much about mahjong anyway, but I do enjoy the yuri and over the top lesbian hex. Even so, half of the enjoyment of watching/reading Saki is the discussion about technical stuffs and maybe characters' mentality and dynamics not pure nonsensical praising and whining which I've seen in some other Saki discussion boards.

I've been thinking, since Achiga is ending next chapter, it may imply that they didn't make it to the finals, since Achiga-hen is supposed to end right here. Still, Saki conversation with Koromo seemed to indecate otherwise which looks like a set up for her to face off with Shizu.

At any rate, while I do prefer Senriyama or Shindouji over Achiga, it might be interesting to see how Harue with her rediculously sharp eyes can be used exploit Kiyosumi. I believe we can all agree that Harue's eagle eyes, no matter how absurd it may sound to some of us, is one of the major contributing factor which allows Achiga to be able to stand up against powerhouse antagonist team Shiraitodai, so I would like to see how effective it can be against our protagonist team Kiyosumi.

I don't know why people are saying that Awai's weak or a bad player. At the current stage, Himeko and Ryuuka's abilities are some of the strongest we've ever seen: Himeko is guaranteed to win where Mairu has given her a key, and Ryuuka's version of Toki's futuresight allows her to get the absolute best possible outcome for any hand she chooses to. The only thing preventing these powers from being completely unstoppable/overpowered is the fact that they are limited, so that they can only use them in certain rounds/a certain number of times. However, either of these powers are more than powerful enough to take on any monster in the series, Koromo or Teru included.

I agree with this, and Himeko and Ryuuka are basically hacking into the system and making their wins guaranteed. So Shizu is basically facing a monster and 2 hackers, meaning the odds are stacked against her, and yet she still hasn't lost many of her points.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sol Falling

No matter what Shizu does now, I don't think she has any chance of disrupting Awai''s supremacy in first place. This is what's somewhat frustrating to me about her character/Achiga in general, because they just do not seem to be a team/characters designed to 'go for the gold' or aim or first place. With Shizu's defensively oriented ability, it will probably be enough to edge out Ryuuka and Mairu, who have brilliant offense (even stronger than Awai's) but limited use. However, if Shizu/Achiga are lacking ambition enough to just be satisfied to with coming second, I would rather have one of the other school's who have both the weapons and determination to try to take it all.

Don't forget Arata did try and put them into first place in the vice-capt match, also people constantly think that Achiga only came to face Nodoka, no I'd say for them to get Harue's full confidence back their aiming for the top, as shown how Harue studied Shiraitodai and found weaknesses for the girls to exploit.

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Originally Posted by Serperior

Apparently, Professor Seiko found a way to make Awai's ability useless.

Spoiler:

Awai double riichis and usually kans whenever the draw would turn into a corner. Whoever gets the tile will definitely be ron by Awai since that's her winning tile.

...So, to prevent her from winning, making the tile position to be circle instead of the usual square will disable her ability.

Seems that because of that strategy, Awai couldn't even win once and cried. Hehe.

Also, I agree with that person who says about Awai's defenses. She uses riichi so her defense is basically 0%. Awai's offense is at 100% (4 guaranteed kan doras is basically cheating!) while her defense is 0%.

Whereas, Kuro's offense is at 80% while her defense is 20%. Kuro can still defend to a certain extend though.

Well I've heard of thinking outside the box, but not turning the box into a circle.

Yeah basically when you declare riichi you throwing away all chances to defend on a gamble to win. Is Awai really guaranteed 4 kans, because that would effectively mean that she could create a yakuman hand every time she uses her W-Riichi.

Quote:

Originally Posted by atua

I'm getting sick of Harue "Super Sleuth" Akado's inside info shtick. It's one thing if she notices stuff about a few players, but to have info on basically every single player is getting ridiculous. According to Sumire, Awai's only used her supernova move once before (in official tournaments). Top tier teams like Senriyama & Himematsu have coaches and associated pros who help out the team. I'm assuming Shiratodai is the same (although we haven't actually seen any on screen/in manga yet). And out of all these people, nobody noticed Sumire's tell, or Awai's corner tile wall trick? Or if those tells are so subtle, how did Harue notice them in the first place? And if she was so good at spotting tells, why didn't she give Kuro better advice for her Toki & Teru matches?

Well, its been stated that Harue has played as a pro, where as most of the other coaches its implied that they haven't played as pros. Also another thing is to consider is that Harue was able to put focus on her 5 wards, where as I would guess the other coaches either split their efforts between all there students, also try not to forget that they also have to help raise the new players that come in to replace the students who are going to graduate. I'd say Harue spotted Sumire's tell because she watched recordings of Sumire's past matches, while most other people just looked and the records. I'd say her spotting Awai's wall trick is down to her looking for why the champion school would put a first year as the captain, also I think that Harue having played Kojaki-pro would guess that Awai's W-Riichi was not just a coincidence.

Quote:

Originally Posted by atua

More proof that Awai's an idiot? Well, we basically knew that already. Don't get me wrong, I'm not calling Awai "weak". Her offensive skill is definitely strong. But she's such an idiot, and a let down after all the hype about her. Doubly disappointing for me because Ritz did very well with Teru (who had sky high expectations built up), so I was hoping for the same treatment with Awai.

This is why I always took things that came from the anime with a grain of salt, because the anime has gotten more than quite a few things wrong and made some really weird changes (I mean why would you change Mako's grandfather's mahjong parlor into a cafe, in a world where mahjong is popular and where a pro frequntly visits).

As stated Awai is basically throwing away all chances by declaring riichi and leaving herself open for a possible attack. Her shaten only keeps her save Shizu and Ryuuka, not Himeko.

Quote:

Originally Posted by teja208

I think some people still haven't gotten over the initial impression that Harue is a lousy coach (I can't believe how crappy of a coach like her can top other more famous schools' in terms of intel) after how badly we have seen Kuro handled her matches against Toki and Teru. If anything, this chapter and ones about Sumire's tell shown how good of a coach she is the reason Miyamori's coach wanting to scount her in the first place.

I do find it odd how Harue didn't even tell Kuro about stopping Teru's winning streak and resetting it, or that having someone call a tile stops Toki's ippastsu. Or maybe we know it Harue found away for Kuro to by pass Teru's full power. Now that would be something I would complain about.

Quote:

Originally Posted by orangejuicetang

Actually, out of curiosity, how many pros have we seen that are associated with a team? Or pro-level, or whatever. Thinking about it, I wonder what level Harue actually is, since she stopped playing after losing to Kokaji-pro in the semifinals all those years ago, but then it turns out that Kokaji-pro went on to become the number 2 best player in the world who still remembers that one hand Harue won off her in the semifinals so I have no idea where I'm going with this.

Only Himematsu is shown to have associated pros helping them for training. Well from the looks of things Harue at full power is maybe just a bit weaker the Kokaji, basically I'd say if they both still played in pro leagues, Kokaji would be japan's number 2 and Harue would maybe be the number 3, that's only if they played alot of games.

Quote:

Originally Posted by orangejuicetang

But I digress, somewhat. From what I've gotten so far, the only two bits of info that she found out that other people don't know about is Sumire's tell and Awai's supernova (?). The other info like 'harvest' and 'fishing' seem to be more common knowledge, or at least the other players already knew about them. As for Teru and Toki, those two are just pretty hax on their own.

Actually I would hazard a guess and say that Hiroko suspects that Awai's W-Riichi is an abilities of hers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by orangejuicetang

On a more unrelated note, I can't help but keep grouping Awai and Shizu together in my mind as 'the pair who loves shouting numbers like one hundred'

I think it was to show a contrast in personalities and to show that they both have confidence in their skills, unlike Saki who lacks alot of confidence in her skills, even though she is a strong player.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marina2

I don't understand why people find it so hard to accept Harue skill. While she may be not good at coaching and lost her motivation for while - She's still have her skill as Achiga legendary player who acknowledged by number 2 best player in the world!. It can be implied that she has good game reading skill and good opponent analysis skill so, I find it believable that she saw something other pros/player didn't see.

I agree with you here. Also something I'd just like to note down. Harue spotted Sumire's tell by watching tapes of her past matches meaning she was able to spot them. Also she didn't fall into a trap like Hisa did with abilities, Hisa thought that Mako only needed to look at match records for her to gain more info for her
Spindle territory, when in actuality Mako needs to see games unfold right in front of her for them to become part of Spindle territory, hence the need for them to have a training camp where Mako can observe a beginner so she doesn't get thrown off by one again.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Von Himmel

So her abilities are:
-Disrupting enemies hands
-DABURU RIICHII
-ron enemies who draw at the corner(?)
-kan/ura dora at the corner?

I don't know why but I can't stop imagining kAwai using car and drifting.

Damn that's are scary set of abilities to have.

Quote:

Originally Posted by King-Slayer

This. And until what day or two ago we were calling Seiko a horrible mahjong player. Now everyone is calling her strong or a monster slayer. But too often people form an idea too quickly about someone and even after its proven wrong, they cling to it.

Wait when was everyone calling Seiko a monster player? She's not bad at mahjong its just a case of Mairu just being a better player and Hiroko's playing style of exploiting habits and weaknesses in her ability/play style. Also Seiko may have arrange the tiles in a circle once, your not allowed to mess with tiles in a official match, so she would probably do poorly against Awai there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fragment off

It obviously is ,she as the right personality to be a bitter looser after all.

I saw in a trad that there is a least 10 people (other than seiko whith the no corner method) that can bypass Awai ability , Who can they be?

Obviously Teru is one of them, but I'd say that Sumire can also bypass it, mainly because declaring riichi is basically giving Sumire a clear shot at you.

Quote:

Originally Posted by atua

Except that isn't remotely what I said. Harue spotting harvest girl's yakumans and Seiko's pons would already meet her obligations as coach, IMO. It's when Ritz throws in Sumire's minute tell, and Awai's move (rarely used even in the club, and only once in an official tournament) that it pushes credulity.

I'd say not really when the worlds former number 2 still sees you as a strong rival when she's played people all around the world.

Quote:

Originally Posted by atua

Akasaka called in ~15 people for the quarterfinals (Saki chapter 100), and then got another ~20 people who can "tune their styles to the other opponents" to prepare for the semi-finals. One of these people include Kainou-pro, a former top ranked pro. Since Senriyama & Shiraitodai are both strong schools of long standing, they would be in a similar situation with a pool of alumna pros they can call on for help. So we could be talking upwards of 100+ pro-level people in total here. Harue's a fine coach, just not SO good that she'd be the only one to spot something that a hundred other pros missed. If Harue was like a pro version of an analyst like FunaQ, I would find it more believable but as far as I know that isn't Harue's type.

Actually it depends on how willing the pros would be to train with the girls. Also you forget that before Teru joined Sharaitodai, Tokyo was known for producing nothing but trash players. Actually from what we've seen Arata using Harue's old style with her own style, Haure is an analyst player. As shown the one hand she won of off Seiko was by exploiting part of her discard habits.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Felyndiira

I think there would.

Let's compare this to, say, the quarterfinal captain's match in the main manga. Toyone's abilities were purposely hidden from prying eyes, and as a result, when she revealed them, everyone's reaction was one of surprise - once for each ability, in fact. Kyouko didn't even believe the ability at first since it was never on the records, and thus fell into it multiple times. Similarly, when Kasumi revealed her own one suit ability, it took a while before any of the other three players figured out what was going on. All of this is appropriate for what hidden or hard-to-notice abilities should be like.

In Achiga, aside from all of this being an eleventh hour power, powers that are explicitly stated to be hard or impossible to notice (Mairu/Himeko), should be impossible for just one person to pick up on without knowing where to look (Sumire), and stuff that no one else should possibly know (Awai) somehow can't escape her eyes. Also, somehow, she's the only one who knows! And Kuro's skill remains stagnant, as if for some reason she's still depending on her doras despite visual proof that she can do nothing against skilled players - almost as if Harue just gave up on her and is just making tentative efforts.

And yet it seems that Hiroko and Harue were still able to spot Mairu and Himeko's combination. Actually it would seem Hiroko had suspicions about Awai but the lack of data made it hard for to really confirm things. I really don't why its made that Harue seems to have it in for Kuro, I mean clearly not training Kuro on how to cope without her dora magnet, teaching her how to use kan dora to her advantage. Or like I said before maybe Kuro knows how to counter Teru's wee-woo thing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Felyndiira

All of this, of course, after a pretty lengthy drama where the Achiga team suspects that their coach has abandoned them. That means that either all of the Achiga girls (especially Yuu, since her flashback was explicitly in Achiga's campus) are forgetful enough to not even remember that their coach was prepping them against Shirotodai players, or...I can't even find another explanation for this >.>.

I don't really get why they put that in either, it didn't really go anywhere. It seemed to just be an excuse to get the girls to go and ask Tsugura for training instead of Harue.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Felyndiira

If Hisa/Yumi suddenly started knowing about things like this or acting blatantly sue-ish with no explanation, then yeah, I think we would call BS on that as well. However, Hisa and Yumi's analysis were typically very consistent, and never exceeded what a observant person might gather after viewing someone's past records. Hisa is a sneaky player and a sneaky trainer, not a god. Harue seems more like she just suddenly awakened her omniscience off-panel after 12 full chapters.

(It doesn't help that Achiga's mahjong games, so far, have all been people throwing more shining finger at each other. The main manga is very much about mahjong, and uses the actual game rules to deliver more insights about the character. Achiga, at this point, is as much about mahjong as Prince of Tennis is about a father and son's relationship.)

Actually I get the slight feeling that some people would heap praise upon praise for having Yumi be able to analyse records and spot things others couldn't. Also Harue is a former pro unlike Hisa and Yumi meaning that she would spot things more easily then them.

Achiga has been about mahjong games just that what we've seen is Teru reign complete slaughter in her match, have Seiko being attacked and targeted by other schools, the only time where we've seen a good mahjong match is when Ako and Sera faced off.

Quote:

Originally Posted by atua

You explained exactly why I'm nit picking right in your post. I have to accept Teru's mirror unconditionally because it's been stated as part of the magical mahjong hax that exists in Saki universe by numerous pros, commentators and players. Because if I can't accept all the rinshan/haitei/supernova/mirror hax that exists as part of this universe, I would have quit reading Saki by now. If Ritz had explained Harue's "eagle-eye ability" as one of her skills, I'd have no choice but to accept that too. But as teja208 says, it would've been nice if Ritz dropped some hints about this ability earlier in the series if that's the case. Whereas the "persistence, observation, and perhaps photographic memory" are subject to common sense and logic, and I've seen no reasonable explanation how Harue spotted some minute detail that dozens of other skilled pros missed. :P

When was it ever said other pros missed them? I'd say the pros aren't telling everyone about them because it would be a real dick move to give away players weaknesses. Also coaches aren't pros.
One of Achiga's main problems was having it basically refuse to reveal anything about Achiga's playing styles and abilities before the semi-finals besides Kuro's dora magnet. Also coaches abilities and play styles aren't important as they are not who the manga is about.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Von Himmel

But it's also possible for her to do pursuit riichi and got double riichi as a result too. We never see both of them fight head-on so we can't say for certain who'll get the upper hand when that happened.

I got the impression that she can do pursuit riichi regardless of the situation at hand based on her match with Saki.

Actually it seems as soon as you call riichi Toyone's hand becomes ready, meaning that it would probably override Awai's 5-shaten hands, meaning that there would be a 3rd ability that can override it. Also Kyouko played into Toyone's hand every time Toyone went in pursuit.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Used Can

Whilst I don't like Harue managing to spot every other detail either, a character having some ability no one heard about it is nothing new in Achiga. I mean, Ryuuka just developed some super-power because Toki slept on her lap! And now Shizu is supposed to have some power no one knew about.

That's just it though us not knowing about Shizu's ability comes from the fact that she is only now going up against ability users meaning that this isn't an ass pull its a case of the conditions not being made for it to be needed.

I doubt its exactly like imagine breaker, because if it was, Awai's 5-shaten shouldn't be affecting her, unless its something that only comes when Shizu needs it.
I'd much rather have it be something that allows Shizu to block abilities meaning that it would be different from Sae's hand sealing ability, which is much more similar to imagine breaker.

Quote:

Originally Posted by teja208

Me either, it's not like I know much about mahjong anyway, but I do enjoy the yuri and over the top lesbian hex. Even so, half of the enjoyment of watching/reading Saki is the discussion about technical stuffs and maybe characters' mentality and dynamics not pure nonsensical praising and whining which I've seen in some other Saki discussion boards.

Believe me, I know about pointless whining, glad to have people who give actual criticism to the Achiga girls.

Quote:

Originally Posted by teja208

I've been thinking, since Achiga is ending next chapter, it may imply that they didn't make it to the finals, since Achiga-hen is supposed to end right here. Still, Saki conversation with Koromo seemed to indecate otherwise which looks like a set up for her to face off with Shizu.

At any rate, while I do prefer Senriyama or Shindouji over Achiga, it might be interesting to see how Harue with her rediculously sharp eyes can be used exploit Kiyosumi. I believe we can all agree that Harue's eagle eyes, no matter how absurd it may sound to some of us, is one of the major contributing factor which allows Achiga to be able to stand up against powerhouse antagonist team Shiraitodai, so I would like to see how effective it can be against our protagonist team Kiyosumi.

Achiga are the ones who are most likely going through with Shraitodai. This does actually make me wonder did Harue do research on the other schools, meaning Eisui, Himematsu and Rinkai.

I've actually been going over this in my head, but I'd say Achiga would be more of a challenge for Kiyosumi then Senriyama or Shindouji.
With Yuuki vs Kuro, its hard to tell if Harue's training will give Kuro the boost that she needs or not, meaning that the only trouble Yuuki would have with facing her is that she would get no dora, although I'm sure we all want to see how well Yuuki would do against Teru. Kirame wouldn't really be able to do anything here, because Yuuki probably doesn't do co-op play, while Toki would basically just her being shocked that Yuuki can surpass her predictions, don't forget calling tiles doesn't disrupt Yuuki anymore.
Yuu would prove to be an actual challenge for Mako, since Yuu can defend and attack. Izumi would just be slaughtered here, while Mako would probably be able to stop Yoshiko's quick hands or expensive hands.
I'd say Ako would be able to give Hisa a good fight, in the quarter finals match Kurumi and Haru both stopped Hisa's hell waits with cheap, where as Ako doesn't need help when making her fast/cheap hands.
Its only when we really come to Nodoka and Saki things become iffy.
Mairu and Himeko's combination would probably a real nuisance to them, but that's only if Mairu can win a good number of hands without having Nodoka get in the way, meaning either Saki would be able to walk all over Himeko or would have to do Himeko what she did to Koromo and make the tiles conform only to her will.
Hiroko wouldn't really be able to analyse anything out of Nodoka because her Nodoccii mode makes her play and calculate the best hands to play with, also I don't thing Nodoka would fall for traps like Seiko did.
Arata would maybe give Nodoka a good run for her money, if Nodoka has accepted occult play in by the finals meaning that she wouldn't drop pinzu tiles easily, also its possible with Nodoka's calculated odds could accidentally play into Arata's hands a few times.
Now I don't see Saki being affected by Ryuuka's foresight, Teru was able to bypass Toki's, I'd be willing to bet she could stop Ryuuka from winning the hand.
I'd see Shizu has just being a thorn in Saki's side, what with Shizu having the 'I won't give up until the very end' attitude, but if Shizu does have the ability to stop other abilities I could see her stopping Saki a few times and forcing her to play at complete strength.

Also something else, I feel like this match has been decided since the sergeant match, mainly because Izumi let down her gaurd and allowed for Yuu to get over her, and since then we've only just recently seen Shindouji, Senriyama really come out f 3rd and 4th and Awaii seems determined to put Shindouji in 4th or bust them. Just my 2 cents on the current match, not something that really needs to matter.

P.S Sorry for the long post, there was just so much I wanted to discuss.

I agree with this, and Himeko and Ryuuka are basically hacking into the system and making their wins guaranteed. So Shizu is basically facing a monster and 2 hackers, meaning the odds are stacked against her, and yet she still hasn't lost many of her points.

I don't agree that when Mairu win on that round will automatically makes himeko win on that round. Himeko will just get a good starting up hand which invalidates the 5-6 hell wait of Awai and Awai shows has 0 defense with devastating offense. I will like to see Himeko fought those who had good table control like Teru or Saki heck probably Koromo too.I would like to see her take on the resident overlord Saki. Saki can even use it to her advantage knowing what number of han is coming from himeko. She did also use Toyone's ability of pursuit Riichi to make her hand complete.